Fluctuation in Ruby causes Apple to halt online sales in Russia

Due to fluctuation in Ruby, tech giant Apple has been forced to halt sales of its iPhones, iPads and other products in the country as the Ruby value is too volatile for it to set prices.

After the Russia’s currency lost as much as 19 percent the iPhone and iPad maker moved quickly to stop all sales from its Web store. The ruble briefly sank beyond 80 per dollar, and bonds and stocks also tumbled.

According to reports from Bloomberg Alan Hely, a spokesman for the Cupertino, California-based company said in an email that “Our online store in Russia is currently unavailable while we review pricing, We apologize to customers for any inconvenience.”

This is Apple’s second currency-related move in Russia as the company in November raised its iPhone 6 by 25 percent.

The fluctuation in Ruby has been causing panic in the international market, prompting many investors to pull money from other developing nations as they feared that Russia’s financial struggles and the tumble in oil signal a global economic slowdown.

“Anything you earn there now in rubles is going to be coming back to dollars or into euros at very depressed rates, so the bottom line for tech vendors right now should wisely be pulling back from Russia as Apple has done,” said Andrew Bartels, an analyst at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester Research Inc told Bloomberg.

The fluctuation in Ruby currency has been fluctuating in the past week as the Ruble has closed as high as 77 and as low as 54 per U.S. dollar after opening 2014 at 32 per dollar. On Tuesday it experienced a dramatic 19 percent decline.

Russia’s central bank revealed on Wednesday that it had spent almost $2bn intervening in the currency market on Monday.

Similarly, the central bank spent around $80bn in an effort to boost the currency this year, but despite of all efforts made, the currency has lost more than half its value against the dollar since January. The main caused of Russians fluctuation in Ruby stems from cheaper oil and Western sanctions over its stance over Ukraine.

There is currently no Apple stores in Russia therefore Russian consumers are forced to rely solely on Apple’s online store which was opened in June of last year.

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